• Kremlin: Russian citizens’ biometric data to be handed over to security services

    The United Biometric System (UBS) that will combine the data collected by various banks to identify their clients will have to cooperate closely with Russia’s security forces, said Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev during a meeting with the head of Rostelecom, Mikhail Oseyevsky.

    The UBS that Rostelecom has been developing since 2017 at the initiative of the Ministry of Communications and the Bank of Russia has been operational since 1 July last year, and by 2021 the use of it should …

  • Kremlin: Russia prepares ‘mirror response’ to the fine against RT TV channel in the UK

    RosKomNadzor (RKN), Russia’s federal agency for censorship of media and telecommunications, is preparing a “mirror response to the biased treatment of Russian media abroad”, the agency announced on its official website on August 1. Draft amendments to the law on foreign media will be put forward in Russia’s State Duma over the next 10 days, and will prescribe fines “well into the millions”, RKN executive Aleksandr Zharov told Interfax. The censorship agency noted that it has already given …

  • Two Russian bombers spotted near Latvian border

    The fighters of the NATO air policing mission detected two Russian bombers near the Latvian border, reads the message of the Latvian National Armed Forces on Twitter.

    NATO's fighters confirmed that these were Su-24 fighter jets.

    "On August 1, air policing aircraft identified two Russian Su-24 fighter jets over the Baltic Sea near the territorial waters of Latvia,"  reads the message.

    Russian bomber was also seen over the Sea of Japan at the end of July. It violated the Japanese airspace …

  • Lobbyists in US report on Zelensky’s spending to improve his image

    The lobbyist company Signal Group Consulting has published a report on the work that it did for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington between April 3 and May 21, 2019. According to documents presented to the US Justice Department, the company received a fee of $60,000 for its services and $9,371 in compensation for its expenses.

    The services were rendered between the first and second rounds of presidential elections in Ukraine. At the time, Zelensky’s team categorically denied …

  • Israel launches missile strike on Syria

    The Israeli army launched a missile attack on the southwest part of the Syrian Golan Heights, reported the Syrian news agency SANA.

    According to SANA, there was material damage as a result of the shelling. There were no reports of casualties among the Syrian military.

    On 23 July, am Isreali missile strike hit the heights of Tell al-Harra in the neighboring province of Daraa in southern Syria. According to Al Hadath TV channel, there are positions of Shiite fighters from Iranian-backed …

  • Head of OMV: Nord Stream 2 launch depends on Denmark

    The first gas to be transported through the Nord Stream 2 pipeline should arrive at midnight on 31 December 2019, said Rainer Seele, CEO of the Austrian company OMV in a press conference, a video of which was published by the company on Twitter.

    “We expect that the first gas will come through this pipeline by the end of the year – before midnight on 31 December. And we have not given up on this plan. But one thing is also clear: the commissioning of this pipeline depends very highly on when …

  • Kremlin threatens to deploy nuclear missiles near the US

    Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov assumed possibility that Russia can deploy missiles banned by the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) closer to the United States. In this way, reports Interfax news agency.

    According to Ryabkov, the critical point in the decision will be the flight time of the missiles. He added that this decision is "speculative-abstract." The representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry referred to the Caribbean crisis, but noted that the analogy …

  • Russian warships and submarines spotted off Estonian coast

    53-year-old Finn Jari Muukkonen, who sailed from Tallinn to Helsinki, spotted off five warships and a submarine in the Gulf of Finland near Estonian territorial waters, reports Elu24 news outlet.

    Jari bongasi viisi sotalaivaa ja sukellusveneen Viron aluevesirajalla – ”Ei se ihan jokapäiväistä ole” https://t.co/JS8qHXP9z0

    — Ilta-Sanomat (@iltasanomat) July 31, 2019

    The man said that the ships belong to Russia, and he also made photos of them.

    "When our ship approached them, it became …

  • Russian Transneft pays compensation to Ukraine for contaminated oil

    The Russian oil company Transneft paid the Ukrainian oil pipeline company UkrTransNafta a compensation in the amount of €2.3 million for the poor-quality oil supplied through the Druzhba pipeline, reads the statement of the UkrTransNafta on Facebook.

    Such compensation will cover the company's lost earnings due to the temporary suspension of transit in April, the company stated. The company specified that the amount of payment is determined under an additional agreement to the current transit …

  • Ukrainian Naftogaz files $5.2 billion lawsuit against Russia in the Hague

    Naftogaz of Ukraine and its constituent companies have filed a lawsuit against Russia at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague demanding compensation for the losses caused by the seizure of $5.2 billion of their assets in Crimea, Naftogaz announced in a statement.

    The Naftogaz Group has asked the court to obligate Russia to pay back this amount. The court is expected to make a decision concerning the compensation amount no earlier than the end of 2020.

    The court has already …